


Wish Upon a Shooting Star

by A_Thousand_Skies (cywscross), cywscross



Series: 100 Prompts Challenge [12]
Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Introspection, M/M, Parallels Exchange 2020, Supernatural Elements, Tsukasa Whomst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:01:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25696198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/pseuds/A_Thousand_Skies, https://archiveofourown.org/users/cywscross/pseuds/cywscross
Summary: Sometimes, Gen looks back and thinks a part of him has always known that Senkuu isn't human.
Relationships: Asagiri Gen & Nanami Ryuusui, Asagiri Gen/Ishigami Senkuu
Series: 100 Prompts Challenge [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1542082
Comments: 15
Kudos: 344
Collections: Parallels Fanworks Exchange 2020





	Wish Upon a Shooting Star

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moon_Blitz](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moon_Blitz/gifts).



> My Parallels gift for Moon_Blitz.
> 
> Also for the [100prompts challenge on DW](https://100prompts.dreamwidth.org/).
> 
> [**Prompt:** 045\. Shooting Star](https://cywscross.dreamwidth.org/17140.html)

Gen's never actually told anyone - it's just never come up - but he wasn't unconscious for the entire duration of the 3700 odd years spent frozen in stone. There'd been moments when he'd surfaced, confused and unable to move, and most of those times, his mind had felt too hazy to really think much of anything, to do more than feel a vague sense of horrified panic. It had always been equal parts relief and terror every time he'd gone under again.

But once in a while, he'd wake up, and he'd stay that way, long enough for the haze to clear, for his thoughts to crystallize, and the first couple times that had happened, he'd spent hours trying to see, trying to hear, anything at all. He'd tried to speak, tried to feel if it was raining or if it was windy or if snow was falling, tried to _move_. All his attempts had ended in failure of course, and all he'd achieved each time was a mental exhaustion that inevitably pulled him under again.

He'd given up on that course of action pretty quickly - it was obvious that if humans _could_ break out of whatever this mass petrification attack was, it wasn't going to be happening anytime soon, and enough years had passed to tell Gen that even if other people had broken out or been revived, they hadn't found a way to unfreeze everyone.

So, all he could do was sleep and wait and sleep some more, until eventually, even that wasn't enough. In a way, the occasional - and then, gradually, increasingly frequent - bouts of true awareness were more a curse than a blessing. He'd heard of sensory deprivation, but he'd apparently never understood it until he'd experienced it for himself. It really was torture.

He'd thought he'd go mad with it, once he'd started waking up more often. It wasn't even so much that he couldn't see or hear or feel anything; it was the _not knowing_ , never knowing if there was an end to this frozen state of being or if he'd be like that forever, petrified for the rest of eternity, unable to escape, even through death.

The despair that had set in after that was excruciating. There was no way out, no way to get free, no way to even just _stop_. He wasn’t always conscious, but he would never fail to regain consciousness either. And trying to force himself back into oblivion never worked.

He didn't know when he thought it, when he started to pray. It wasn't even proper prayer - he'd always been an atheist - but there was nothing else he could do, and pleading to God, to fate, to the universe, to some unknown force of divinity for a way out, even if it didn't work, even if he didn't _expect_ it to work, was still better than all that endless infinite nothing.

But he'd pleaded, in those moments drifting between clarity and crumbling sanity, he'd bargained, promised to be a better person if he could just move again, promised to find a way to help others out of their stone prisons if he could be freed.

None of it had worked of course. Maybe it would've if he'd had even a drop of honest belief behind any of his entreaties. He hadn't though. If some higher deity watching over humanity actually existed, would they have let this horrifying phenomenon happen in the first place? Gen had seen - in the seconds before his own petrification - his whole audience being turned to stone. He'd known from the beginning that the scale of this disaster was worldwide and apocalyptic. If God was real, they sure as hell weren't doing their job anymore.

But he'd begged anyway, for lack of anything else to do, and then he'd stopped even that when nothing had come of it.

That last time though, the last time he was awake and aware before he slipped under once again, he hadn't begged.

He'd made a wish instead, nothing offered in return, just a last, tired, resigned impulse of someone at the end of their rope - _help me, please don't let me wake up like this again, help me_. He'd considered it before - that it would be better if he could just sleep until the stone shattered on its own, if it ever would - but that'd been the first time he'd deliberately expressed it, the sheer desire for it echoing in his mind. It had been long enough by that point that the prospect of nonexistence hadn't seemed so scary after all.

So he'd made the wish, a wistful, faded thing, barely formed before fracturing again in the black void dragging him under.

He'd made a wish. He hadn't expected someone would hear it.

And he certainly hadn't expected they would _answer_.

* * *

Unbeknownst to him, in that single moment, high above in the clear night sky, a shooting star had begun its descent to earth.

_Help me. Please don't let me wake up like this again, help me._

And so he wouldn't.

* * *

The first thing Gen had seen was light. The crack of stone - loud and shocking - woke him, and then the world had burst into vivid blinding colour, so overwhelming that he'd almost been unable to bear it.

The second thing he'd seen once his vision had cleared was a boy, his age, with odd red eyes and even odder white hair tipped in green, and for a split second, Gen could've sworn he was glowing.

_A trick of the light_ , he'd later thought. Everything had been so bright in those first few moments of freedom, and the sun had been rising just over the boy's shoulder. Besides, Gen had been far more preoccupied with trying to wrap his mind around the fact that he was no longer petrified, something he'd pretty much completely given up on even hoping for.

"My name is Ishigami Senkuu," The boy had told him, an odd little smirk tilting his lips as he'd stared at Gen with curious assessing eyes. "Who are you?"

Gen had introduced himself, still feeling more than a little dazed as Senkuu had proceeded to explain what had happened - the world turned to stone for over 3700 years, civilization long since overtaken by nature once more.

"How did you break out of the stone?" Gen had asked once he'd followed Senkuu back to a rough but sturdy-looking treehouse and it had become clear that there was only the two of them.

Senkuu had shrugged and smiled. "I just did. Guess I waited long enough. Then I built this and managed to come up with a formula to free people from the stone, and here we are."

Even back then, it had come across as strange to Gen. "…And you chose to free me first?"

Senkuu had blinked at him, expression somewhere between amused and indulgent, like Gen had entirely missed the point. "Think of it as a lucky coincidence. You were the first statue I saw after waking up, so I figured I'd start with you. You're not complaining, are you?"

Put like that, Gen couldn't really dispute it, and he really was grateful to be freed at all.

"Now come on," Senkuu had continued, motioning him up the ladder. "Give me a hand with the cure." He'd grinned, all evil glee. "There's a bunch of people in need of de-petrifying and only two of us. I'm gonna work you to the bone."

And with that frightening declaration, Senkuu had - true to his word - put Gen to work that just about killed him every day. He'd grumbled and whined and bemoaned his fate, but they both knew anyway - Gen would take this backbreaking labour over his stone prison any day of the week.

And for a while after that, busy with the miracle fluid and reinventing necessary technology and freeing more people in-between, Gen hadn't given much further thought about just who Ishigami Senkuu was.

The boy was lucky enough to break out of the stone on his own, and Gen was lucky enough to catch Senkuu's eye.

That was enough. For a while.

* * *

Senkuu was fascinating. He knew so much, mostly about survival and science and creative ways to bring back the technology humanity had lost. Making the stone formula and gathering the food and supplies needed to help them live took up a lot of their time, but it wasn't all they did either. At night in particular, in those moments after they'd eaten but before they slept, Senkuu would teach him about the stars. It seemed like he could name every single one, knew every myth and legend behind them, and never failed to find any star Gen could name.

In exchange, Gen would tell Senkuu about his life before. He didn't know what was so interesting, but Senkuu always seemed fascinated, listening attentively about the magic shows Gen had hosted, grinning like a child when Gen showed him the various sleight-of-hand tricks he knew, and asking about everything from the high school Gen had attended to the apartment he'd rented for himself to the book he'd written before the Petrification.

It rang a little strangely sometimes, Senkuu's questions, but Gen liked that he had something to offer in return, even if it was just anecdotes about his life. Senkuu enjoyed listening, and Gen's always had a bit of a weakness for a captive audience.

Senkuu was only one person, but Gen found he far preferred his attention over the crowds he used to attract. He thought he knew why too, when he realized one day that he'd taken to watching the glint of firelight reflecting off Senkuu's eyes and the curve of Senkuu's smile when Gen made him laugh and the joy in his expression when he spoke about something he loved.

Gen said nothing of course. He liked what he had already, a friend and companion he'd grown to trust so quickly that it should've scared him because he'd never met anyone else who managed to slip behind his defenses so easily, but at the same time, it was something he treasured fiercely, and he'd guard that with everything he had, even against himself.

* * *

Time passed. The next two they freed - Taiju and Yuzuriha - were both high school students, and almost high school sweethearts to boot, which was both amusing and exasperatingly cavity-inducing sometimes. They were good people though, with skills of their own to contribute, and they fit in well with Gen and Senkuu, willing to help and eager to be friends. Then came Ryuusui and Francois and Ukyou and Nikki, and Gen didn't know how Senkuu did it but the boy definitely had a knack for choosing those with useful talents, trustworthy dispositions, and very unique personalities.

They they'd stumbled on a village full of people who still called science magic, but after the initial suspicions, they proved to be decent allies, and a handful of their more outcast members took a liking to Senkuu almost immediately. Their workforce expanded, things got a little easier, and the Stone World felt less alien and more like home.

(Gen hadn't expected a brush with death in the form of one very narrow-minded buffoon of a Stone era villager, but Magma didn't succeed anyway. Gen had gone out for a walk in the evening. He'd been alone, then Magma was there with his cronies, and then in the space of breath between wondering if he should call for help and freezing in place as a spear came thrusting towards him, Senkuu had appeared out of nowhere, red eyes flashing impossibly bright even as he'd yanked Gen out of the way and then threw a makeshift bomb down that filled the clearing with smoke and drove Magma's group away.

Things had turned out alright, but Gen never quite forgot the way Senkuu had looked in those heart-stopping seconds - figure limned in light against the dark of the night sky, the shape of him flickering like fire, and so utterly inhuman that Gen had to have imagined it. Senkuu had growled at him for being stupid and going out alone when tensions were high, but he'd also dropped the matter soon enough once he'd patted Gen down and made sure he wasn't dying or whatever else Senkuu was worried about.

It was sweet, and it made Gen just guilty enough to accept the lecture with good grace, and by the time Senkuu had been satisfied that Gen wasn't about to keel over dead, enough time had passed that even Gen hesitated to bring up what he'd seen. Conversation turned to more urgent topics, and Senkuu was very human as he sat beside Gen and sketched out their plans, so in the end, Gen hadn't asked.

He hadn't asked, but he never forgot either.)

* * *

And now it's been months since the two of them met, and Gen still hasn't forgotten, mostly because it… keeps happening.

It's subtle, the way Senkuu's eyes go preternaturally bright like rubies, the way his silhouette sometimes wavers like candlelight, the way he _always_ knows exactly where Gen is. He's not always like that or Gen has no doubt other people would've noticed by now. Most of the time, he's just a boy with an encyclopedic memory of human history and a boundless curiosity when it comes to science, and while his colouring is certainly unique, it's still apparently normal enough that nobody's questioned it so far.

But occasionally, he also becomes something _… other_ , and Gen's managed to pick up enough clues by now to figure out at least one trigger.

Mainly, it's just when Gen's in some kind of danger. The incident with Magma stands out, even if Gen was mostly convinced that it was just an adrenaline-fuelled hallucination back then. But there's been other times, less prominent, when Gen accidentally gashed his hand open on a rock while gathering shells from the ocean and Senkuu popped up with disinfectant and bandages almost before _Gen_ noticed the injury; or when he'd gone along on one of the little cave expeditions and Senkuu - who'd gone on ahead with Chrome in a burst of mutual enthusiasm - had suddenly appeared at his side between one blink and the next and grabbed him by the arm just as the edge of the narrow path he'd been walking on had crumbled; or when Senkuu had stared at him one day and then proceeded to recreate cold medicine two days before Gen had started coughing.

Every time, his eyes would flash that same peculiar molten red while the rest of his body shifted and blurred like there was light seeping from his bones and his skin wasn't enough to contain it.

Gen has taken up stargazing recently, mostly because Senkuu seems to like it so much. He stays up one night with the other boy, looking up at the sky, and - unbidden - he thinks of stars going supernova and wonders if it would look a little like Senkuu whenever he isn't quite… human. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say whenever he stops _trying_ to be human.

That's the first time he thinks it, consciously, more aware than ever with Senkuu sprawled out beside him and exuding heat in a way Gen doesn't think regular humans can, even ones who naturally run at hotter temperatures.

He thinks it, and he glances over at the boy in question. Senkuu is already looking back, something amused and indulgent glittering in his eyes, and the curve of his mouth is as much expectation as it is challenge.

Gen looks back up at the sky. He thinks it, but can't quite find the words to ask. Not then.

Instead, he lies beside Senkuu, their shoulders brushing as companionable silence coils content around them, and he wonders when he discarded his previous life's policy of keeping people at arm's length and done the exact opposite instead. Senkuu is a comfortable, familiar presence at his side, and Gen… well, he _can_ imagine what life would be like without this boy, without the kingdom they've created and the people they've pulled in - he'd been living it before the Petrification after all, cold and grey and full of fake smiles and faceless audiences - but he certainly has no desire to return to that status quo.

He likes the life he's built for himself, likes the leader he follows and the ragtag family they've gathered. But most of all, he remembers who it was that saved him from an eternity in stone in the first place, and maybe his place here - at Senkuu's side, in the home they've cobbled together from the ground up - has always been where Gen was going to end up.

He likes the thought of that, because if nothing else, it gives purpose to those 3700 years in silence and stone. Waiting that long doesn't seem so bad these days if Senkuu and the Kingdom of Science and all the people who not only tolerate him but actually like having him around is what he gets in exchange.

He doesn't want to ruin any of that by asking unnecessary questions. Senkuu saved him and taught him how to survive and gave him another chance at life; he's here and he values Gen's opinions and looks to him first, always.

For Gen, that's all that really matters.

* * *

So Gen doesn't ask, but eventually, other people are bound to notice. Senkuu's subtle, but there's only so many times he can slip up - or just not bother - before someone else notices the weirdness.

"So," Ryuusui says one day when he's weaving nets with Gen on the shore. It's just the two of them, although Chrome and Kaseki seem to be going into paroxysm of joy over a new idea of some kind on the nearby cliff to their right. Ukyou's babysitting them though so they probably won't take a header into the ocean anytime soon.

"Senkuu," Ryuusui continues blithely. "What exactly is he?"

Gen doesn't blink. "Hmm, do you mean his profession? You'll have to ask him if you want to know exactly what kind of scientist he'd be in our time."

Ryuusui's eyebrows tell him stop bullshitting. Gen smiles back innocently because he once made an entire career out of bullshitting, it's what he knows best.

"He's not human," Ryuusui says next, abrupt and unexpected even to Gen, but then, Ryuusui's never been the sort to beat around the bush when it comes to getting what he wants. Straightforward and ruthless has always been the ship captain's style.

Doesn't mean Gen's going to make it easy for him though.

"What else could he be if not human?" Gen counters, wide-eyed and skeptical. "I'm pretty sure we haven't all been following a cat or an owl all this time."

Ryuusui rolls his eyes. "If I knew what he was, I wouldn't be asking. Don't play dumb, Gen. It doesn’t suit you."

"I really have no idea what he is," Gen says, very honestly. And then, less honestly, "He looks perfectly human to me, and I don't believe in that sort of thing anyway. I didn't take you for the superstitious sort either, Ryuusui-chan, even for a sailor."

Ryuusui barks out a laugh, and his hands don't stop moving over the strands of the net, swift and sure, but his eyes are sharp and discerning on Gen's face.

Gen keeps forgetting the improbable amount of geniuses that have made their way into their kingdom. It's terribly troublesome in times like this.

“I don’t need to be superstitious to know how to use my eyes,” Ryuusui scoffs. “Senkuu should hide it better if he doesn’t want other people to know. Just the other day, I literally saw him coming out of the Observatory with you when I definitely didn't see him go up, and Kohaku said he was wandering around in the caves not an hour before that. Even running, you can't get from the caves to the village in an hour.”

Gen has to concede that point, but he’s not going to let Ryuusui know that.

“If you think Senkuu-chan is some kind of mythical youkai,” he says instead, smiling cheerily at the flatly unimpressed look Ryuusui pins on him. “Why don’t you just ask him about it?”

Ryuusui just shrugs. "We would, but it's surprisingly hard to catch Senkuu alone and bring it up without being distracted by another conversation about the next invention, so we thought it would be easier to just ask you."

Gen does finally pause at that. "…'We'?"

Ryuusui grins, sly and cutting, and like this, it isn't so hard to remember he used to be one of the youngest and most successful business tycoons in the world.

"We _all_ have eyes," The man points out drolly. "Ukyou's known since forever. Can't really miss it with vision like his. Chrome thought for a while that it was something all modern worlders can do. He was very disappointed when we told him teleportation was not a thing for us mere humans. Suika just thinks Senkuu's eyes are pretty and wants to know if she can get glasses in that colour. Taiju's accepted it as the new normal, and Yuzuriha likes to sharpen her sewing needles whenever someone asks her about it and she tells them it's just 'a Senkuu thing'. And most of the villagers are convinced he's half-god by now. Trust me, _everyone knows._ " His eyes narrow. "Everyone also knows you were the first one he revived, and you're the one he protects, so we figured if anyone knew the truth, it would be you."

Gen is admittedly a bit stunned, if only temporarily. He recovers a few beats later and goes back to his net, but Ryuusui's expression is smug, like that was all the confirmation he needed anyway.

"…If everyone thinks something is wrong with Senkuu-chan," Gen says in pointedly light tones. "Why ask now? Why not before?"

"Because nobody thinks there's anything _wrong_ with him," Ryuusui corrects with another roll of his eyes. "We were all fine with not talking about it." All traces of humour disappear from his face in the next second. "But you heard what Soyuz said. We're about to set off to some unknown island ruled by a dictator and populated by people who most likely aren't going to be welcoming us with open arms. You put something like Senkuu beside people like that, and there's bound to be trouble. So now we're asking, and I volunteered to be spokesperson. Either Senkuu has to learn how to keep it under wraps, or we need to bring a lot more firepower, just in case."

Gen stops weaving his net. He's aware of Ryuusui slowing to a halt as well, just watching him now, quiet and keen-eyed, but he ignores it for the time being.

It's a good point. Actually, it's an excellent point, and Gen's more than a bit irritated that it hadn't occurred to him at all, because this is the sort of thing he's supposed to think of and warn Senkuu about. Maybe it was exactly because nobody talked about it - he thinks some part of him half-believed nobody but him could see what Senkuu is. Or maybe he'd just gotten used to the atmosphere here - the people Senkuu has gathered can be annoying or stupid or downright _mean_ , but they're also nothing if not loyal these days. Not a single one would betray him.

The same can't be said for sure of the people they'll meet on Treasure Island.

Ugh. Gen's losing his touch. How embarrassing.

"I haven't asked," He says at last. "I really don't know what he is."

Ryuusui arches an eyebrow.

Gen sighs. "But yes, I'll talk to him before we set off, and I'll let you know."

Ryuusui nods, satisfied, and they both go back to their nets. In the distance, Chrome shrieks, flailing on the edge, and catches a startled Ukyou by the arm, and they both go splashing into the ocean below.

* * *

"So you're finally going to ask?" Senkuu drawls when Gen hunts him down at the village cemetery. He's standing in front of Ishigami Byakuya's grave again.

Gen hums noncommittally and comes to a stop beside him. "…Is this actually your father or did you just so happen to pick his name?"

Senkuu's shoulders rise and fall in a loose shrug. "Our kind don't have fathers, or families, not the way you understand it, but it's the closest translation of what he was to me."

Gen mulls that over for a moment. "So he was also…"

"A wish come true, is the term you're looking for," Senkuu replies with a faint smile, and his eyes are shining that too-bright red again. "Shooting stars really are just meteors entering the earth's atmosphere, but once in a while, you get one of my kind riding along, passing your planet. Meteor-surfing is fun, you know. But if your timing is lucky enough, and your wish is desperate enough, _powerful_ enough, one of us might hear and choose to answer." He peers down at the tombstone in front of him. "One of those astronauts must've gotten it right. And Byakuya's always been a soft touch."

There's no bitterness there, just a wistful sort of acceptance. Gen finds himself drifting closer anyway until their elbows knock together. Senkuu makes an amused sound and presses back.

"You seem to be a pretty soft touch yourself," Gen remarks, slanting an unobtrusive glance at him. "I didn't even realize what I wished for counted as a wish."

Senkuu huffs a bit. "I wanted to know why he'd give up the stars for this planet." He pauses, then snorts, still amused but turned inward this time. "Then I got to know you and realized it probably wasn't the planet, it was the people."

Gen can feel heat rising in his cheeks. He does his best to stomp down on the reaction. "Your kind can die then."

Senkuu shrugs again, unconcerned. "Everything dies, sooner or later. But when we fall, we lose our original lifespans and take on the characteristics of whatever species we've chosen to become, and most don't have anywhere near as long as we do. We still retain most of our abilities though so that we can protect our charge properly."

Gen gives up on subtlety and just turns to study the dimly glowing figure at his side. After a few seconds, Senkuu does the same, staring back calmly and still with that undercurrent of amusement like he's been waiting for Gen to reach this point for a long time.

"Was it worth it then?" He asks at last, and maybe that was always the question he'd wanted to know the answer to most. _Was it worth it? Was I worth it?_

Senkuu rolls his eyes. "Didn't I say it already? Don't fish. Even the others know you're my favourite."

Gen's ears feel mortifyingly hot, but he still has the presence of mind to roll his eyes in return when Senkuu smirks at him.

"It's not like we can't leave," Senkuu informs him, gaze turning to the sky above. It's night again, and the stars are vast and endless. "But you've given me a reason to stay, so even if I miss the stars, I think I'd miss this place more." His eyes move from the heavens back to Gen, steady and patient and bright. "So I'll stay, for as long as you want me to."

Gen stares back, breathes in slow and deep, tucks those words behind his ribcage, in the back of his mind, hoards them where he can take them out again anytime he wants.

And then he takes that last step, breaches that last bit of distance he's been hesitating to take, and when his hand swings out, fingers brushing against Senkuu's, Senkuu's entire body flares like starlight for a moment, dazzling and familiar, before a calloused hand twines with his own.

Gen's next breath comes out in a rush of dizzying giddy relief. The light fades again and Senkuu harrumphs good-naturedly at him. "You're kinda slow, Gen."

Gen's in too good a mood to feel offended. He does retort rather glibly, "Some things should be savoured."

It makes Senkuu laugh and tug Gen even closer as they begin walking back towards the village. Gen thinks briefly of the issue Ryuusui had raised, of what he'd been planning on talking about when he first approached Senkuu earlier, but…

It can wait a while longer, he decides. For now, he enjoys the warmth Senkuu is radiating, the feel of his hand in his, and he looks forward to the many days to come.


End file.
